Merrifield, Robert Bruce

Merrifield, Robert Bruce, 1921–2006, American chemist, b. Fort Worth, Tex., Ph.D. Univ. of California at Los Angeles, 1949. As a researcher at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (later Rockefeller Univ.), with which he was associated until his death, Merrifield developed a comparatively simple method for synthesizing polypeptides. The innovation, which won Merrifield the 1984 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, greatly facilitated the manufacture of insulin, interferon, and other drugs.